Look across Chatham County and it seems like everywhere you turn, there are public construction projects under way.

There's the multi-phased courthouse renovations downtown, an expanded river walk on Hutchinson Island, a new police precinct building going up on the islands and an ever-changing Citizens Service Center on Eisenhower Drive.

Some are capital improvement projects planned years ago; many are funded with voter-approved Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax dollars.

And this is just the beginning.

Taxpayers can expect to see more work as the 2003 SPLOST dollars are spent and a new round of penny-tax collection starts in fall 2008.

"SPLOST really has been a boon for this county," said Gregori Anderson, Chatham County's director of building safety. "We've done a lot over the last 15 years that's above and beyond roads."

Anderson points to recreational facilities and parks, as well as the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center on Hutchinson Island.

"The county has leveraged, through the help of voters, those SPLOST dollars to a great extent," he said.

One project still in its infancy is an 8,000-square-foot addition to the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

After two years of planning and wrangling proposed construction cost over-runs, the county is ready to build as soon as permits are in hand.

"We intend to market the space for community meetings as well as receptions and other events," Anderson said. "It is intended to be a revenue source for the museum."

"With every SPLOST comes a new slate of projects," said Assistant County Manager Pat Monahan. "The timing probably is as much tied to when SPLOST funding becomes booked as much as anything else."

Consider the Citizens Service Center on Eisenhower Drive.

It started as a place for citizens to get their driver's licenses and building permits. But over time, it's expanded into a hub for residents to register to vote, cast absentee ballots, renew vehicle tags - and soon will be home to a driver's education course.

"The county ... is really controlled by funding," said Gus Bell, chairman of the board for Hussey, Gay, Bell and DeYoung Inc. "A lot of funding, particularly for roadways and highways, is state funded. And an awful lot gets tied up with very extensive environmental services."

As a result, Bell said projects tend to move "at a snail's pace."

He should know: His Savannah firm has worked with the county on dozens of projects over the years and is currently extending the river walk on Hutchinson Island.

Because there is dredging involved as well as wetlands, Bell said the project has been delayed, despite having design plans completed two years ago.

"We've been waiting for permitting," he said.

Likewise, juggling multiple projects has also been a challenge.

"It's not like a few years ago when we just had the convention center and a $100 million project that consumed 100 percent of my time," Monahan said.

Now he is handling nearly a dozen smaller projects. Similarly, other county department heads with project management experience are overseeing a handful of construction jobs, like the jail expansion, the civil rights museum expansion and park improvements.

"Despite handling $2 billion in projects since SPLOST was first implemented, the county has not added a significant number of staff to handle the workload," Monahan said. "We've managed the projects without becoming too top heavy."

At the same time, the county has shared larger portions of the penny sales tax pie with area municipalities, which have handled their own construction projects.

"When you look at all the construction since SPLOST kicked into gear, and we've never hired a project manager or augmented staffing," County Manager Russ Abolt said. "It's been done by individuals rising to the occasion.